The Robinson Homestead is a family owned and operated farm in Verbena AL. We farm in season vegetables, free range eggs and rabbits.

Yummy fruits are coming soon!!!

We have worked very hard today! We got lucky since we made bread last night we did not need to get up til 730! Tomorrow we plan on sleeping in till 730 too! Such a nice thing to not get up at 5 or 6! Its getting much warmer in the afternoons so we do our best to bake right before bed. Well actually using the oven, dishwasher, clothes washer or our living room TV are all reduced to almost nothing to aid in keeping the heat out. Then after the sun sets, the tv comes on and baking, canning, dish washing, cloths washing begins. It definitely will take us some time to adjust to this new routine. Another change we have done is to go our side from 8 till 11-12 with only one break. Then after 130 when the youngest two are asleep we only go out for 45 min to an hour tops with 30 min breaks in between time. We use that inside time to cool off and re-hydrate. Now after 3-4 when the youngest are back up we lengthen our time outside and try to only come in once before dinner which is sometime between 6-7. The longer times outside with the youngest two are mostly due to the fact the are incredibly slow getting in and outside, to reduce loss of AC we try to keep it to the minimum. We also do our best to complete all outside work by dinner, so to give us inside time to relax before working again. Then as soon as our youngest are asleep usually by 930 we start the heat-producing chores, and if it is cooler outside we open windows and doors to aid in keeping our home cool. We also do not use many over head lights during the day time this also reduces heat, but it can cause some interesting thing to occur going from bright sunlight to a dark home. We plan on finishing the painting on our roof soon, well as soon as durbs school work will allow. That will reduce heat and we need to put aluminum foil over our window and the lil ones windows to reflect more sunlight.These measures are definitely aiding us in keeping our electric bill lower. We will find more tricks as the summer heats up. I am looking into solar-powered swamp coolers if we find that our ac costs too much to keep our place cool. We have a deep freezer so making ice for them should not be an issue.

Now to our accomplishments for the day! Well, we all had one on one time, which is an amazing feat with a family of six! And we even managed to get Anny some alone time! We also weeded another row in the field, but this time we actually weeded two rows halfway.

Then we pulled brambles from the first two rows to aid in our cultivating we are doing hopefully this Friday! Here is the pile of weeds from today.

I know it does not look all that impressive but its twice the size of yesterdays! I promised yesterday I would post a pic of the privets Durbs cut down from around the older of our two peach trees, and we forgot to take a picture ROFLMBO! Yeah we got pics of the fruit of the tree, but not the clearing around it. We will try again tomorrow. Frankie watered our veggie garden all by herself today that is a first! I am so proud of her, her trust in herself, her self-confidence is growing daily!

Another exciting thing that happened today, is the discovery of a baby mocking-bird in the top of Anny’s closet…. SHe had brought it in last night, when she discovered it on the porch of the cottage. She was scared it would die since the momma bird was no where around. She put it in a bowl and gave it chick feed. Well the lil baby was screaming by lunch today. I called her in and asked her about it as I tried to find a way to help it. I got it to take some pedialyte which is advised with chickens, but told her repeatedly I had no idea how to feed this bird. We talked about the differences, like the shape of the beak, the closed eyes, more full feathers and its lack of movement. Once Anny knew how the baby might have died since she left it in a cold closet, they really need warmth, and it can not eat chick feed she was really upset. She finally told me where she saw the nest, so we went back to the cottage and sure enough there is a nest in the top of the porch. I had her put the baby back. I thought this was the end of the matter. I talked with her and told her come to me first from now one. I told Frankie the same…. Well right before dinner I call Trin to come inside and she comes running to me from the cottage talking about baby birds. I looked at Anny, we had not told anyone else where the nest was. Anny ran to the porch as I got Frankie and Trin inside, I was very upset with Frankie and I told her that. She knew better than to mess with them, she was told to come get me first! Anny was very angry as we met halfway to the cottage. Three baby mocking birds were on the porch now. I get there and you could see they had been moved onto some leaves Trin had been playing with. The nest was still up in its corner, so we decided to try to put them back in again! One was breathing good, one seemed weak and one seemed dead. I was really upset that one might have died, so we put the first two up there and Anny says ‘Mom there is another in the nest!’ I am trying to startled the baby in my hands to wake it up, I cant see it breathe it was limp and so I asked God for help. The baby stretched out is wings and breathed in deep, we then quickly put the baby back in the nest. Momma bird was close by the whole time.So now we know there are 4 baby mocking birds, in one tiny nest on the porch of the cottage. We will check to see if they are all right tomorrow. I do not wish to hand feed and raise these babies, so me and Anny talked. We have not made a decision what to do if the babies are back out again, but we will take it one step at a time.

Now for the main event! FRUIT! And a pic of a squash blossom. We now have double our squash blooms since yesterday!

Crook Neck Squash!

PEACHES!!! And this is on the old tree that we did not know if it would eve produce. It is loaded with them!

FIGS! Again on trees we cleared around that we did not know if they would produce!

Surely y’all know this means STRAWBERRIES!!!!!!! And we thought they were done for the year!

Our neighbor and friend Ms Billie brought us more plums so we now definitely have enough to make Jelly. I hope to get to it tonight, if not then tomorrow night. I am very excited! I was going to make Jam, but decided to try my hand at jelly instead, and it should keep for 6 month out of the fridge if unopened!!! My gosh that’s great news, now to fins some more shelves for our home-made canned goods!

And tonight after spending most of his day working on his paper that is due Sunday, my amazing husband cooked one of my favorite meals. Cheesy Potato Soup!!

It is freaking delicious!

Check out Our Flock page for new Pics! And some of those we thought where hens out of our oldest are now looking more like roosters! I will post pics of our oldest tomorrow today I updated our youngest bunch. Please be nice they are still feathering out so they look a little rough…LOL

Love y’all Blessings be with yas. I gotta get on the house hold chores now!